Some thoughts on the abstract. Definitely an organic way of making an image. I started off with no preconceived ideas about what i wanted. Started off with the wood flat on the ground and some dark blue and red, very watered down water paint and started to move that around. I did try a few different objects such as scissors, stones and a halved apple (i thought something might work for the moon challenge) placed about but nothing seemed to click at all. I put the wood to one side, leaning vertically against the wall, and one single drip of paint ran down. This is the line to the left of the shot. With that, everything kind of fell into place as when i looked at the wood horizontally i could see the head image to the right with the line coming out of the mouth. Got quite excited by it then. I followed the line with some cuts from a craft knife, hacked it up a bit. Added some sprinkles of white powder. The white part of the eye was natural but i added the black pupil with pen. Lit it with a lamp from the left and took the photo. Pushed the colour and contrast up quite a bit in PP.
It's quite an aggressive image i feel. The head to the right, shouting, bits of white spittle fall on the vertical wood, quite cutting words. Quite cathartic really!
I like your suggestion of moving the composition so that the vertical wood is more to the left, EL-ROI. Trouble is that just out of shot to the left is another vertical strip!
It's interesting to read your notes and having read them I can see the image described. It is not how I saw it at first. To me it was sunset coloured water, a bank with a little growth of grass or reeds and the darker part shadows/reflections of the underside of a pier which is supported by the upright.
I cannot see the head that you speak of at all, but that doesn't matter, I definitely get the personification feeling from it. The "scratchy" lines look like a horrible stitching job. I love the dichotomy of this image with the board breaking up the two sides. I'm looking forward to more of your work.
dang you went thru a lot of work to get this abstract lol. my abstracts are usually photos that did not turn out right :D I love how it does look like a head banging against a wall. very cool.
This is really cool. I never know how to start with abstracts and really enjoyed your process. Overall, you've captured something truly unique and really aggressive! Great shot!
Very nice warm glow! Yes, there really is a face with an eye in the right half.
Just a suggestion - if you'd like to show "the face" you could us a square format and cut off some of the golden left. However, the picture is nice as it is!
The solid vertical line is a good trick to add depth and form to a chaotic abstract. It's seldom useful to have it in the middle, though, as it only cuts the picture in half. Mind you, this one merges in well, so it isn't disastrous or anything. Keep this up for a long time and there'll be all sorts of catharsis and all sorts of learning, too, I'll wager :)
Wow!! If this is your first abstract, I can only imagine you will be putting on a workshop for all of us throughout the year! The color is very vivid, the wood grain adds great texture and the little knot looks like an eye!
Improvements?? If I could give any critque at all it would be to recompose to make the downward stroke of the woodstain to be in the right third of the image. That may not even have been possible.
Excellent job... How about a little backstory on the abstract to hear your thoughts on the image and setting it up??
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